A monster series with big teeth and a bit of a limp

"What makes us human?" is one of the biggest questions in any art medium and the zombie genre has made exploring this question one its most consistent themes. While "Sweet Home" is not a true zombie production, it shares enough characteristics to fall somewhere in that corner of horror entertainment. One of the common threads that pops up here is that sometimes the most evil beings are the ones that are still unaffected-on-the-outside humans. The twist, and it's a good one, is that not all the creatures that look like monsters are monsters.

It's particularly poignant with Song Kang's Hyun Soo who alternates between struggling with wanting to live and a battle to retain his humanity. Although there are some exceptional human vs. monster melee's, the high points of "Sweet Home" are unquestionably the quiet exchanges between Hyun Soon and Go Min Si's Eun Yoo. The quality of Song Kang's work tends to peak and valley and this is definitely among his finest performances. It does falter and the show does in general in the final two episodes as the first primary arc pushes to a resolution while setting up the next act.

The crew has put together a mostly excellent package of special effects, sound and camera work. There's a couple of instances of less convincing cgi that detract but it's a minor distraction.

It's a fairly solid cast although only a few stand out with notable performances. Kim Gab Soo is one of them who exudes optimism balanced with knowledge of the grim reality. Lee Shi Young and Park Gyu Young both shine as strong women battling both personal emotional loss and deadly creatures.

A few holes emerge too. Although the setting is an apartment building in Seoul, there's not just a massive amount of people that never appear, but there's no attempt to explain their absence. Dozens (possibly?) of creatures appear outside the building in moments, but that still leaves millions in the city unaccounted for and scores within the building. Two mutants appear, one early and one late, that fall right on the human/monster line and seem ideal for additional attention, but don't receive it. Overall, the coherence of the narrative is uneven but the spotlight is focused enough for the most of the series. But when the plot has to expand to incorporate new introductions and beyond the group's struggle survive within the apartment building, the tension subsides and the flaws begin to protrude.

Some entries in this genre are must-watch even for viewers who aren't hardcore horror buffs. "Sweet Home" falls short of that bar, but it is an entertaining and, at times, compelling series. Whether it remains so in a follow-up season will require more disciplined storytelling as it appears multiple arcs will splinter off. And it may need more range and intensity from Song Kang than his body of work has shown he's capable of providing.

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Well executed show hobbled by a lack of direction

Crosswalk cliche score - 4 - did manage to squeeze in a bit of a twist, but couldn't stay away from this trope

Little sib score - 6 - Dam's bro was dull but Kim Do-Yeon was fantastic as Sun Woo's little sister. She barely appeared as the show wore on though.

Power coat score - 9 - Woo Yeo may not be the most dynamic character, but the dude had a sweet collection of threads.

Product placement score - 1 - Subway, ewww. They even centered an entire episode around it. Ick ick ick.

Cameo score - 10 - Ko Gyung-Po is nice and Jung So-Min is even better (although a few more speaking lines would have been nice). But Oh Jung Se's appearance is sublime. It's brief but magical.

Overall, I enjoyed the show but it's a sugary snack of a show rather than a memorable, must-rewatch powerhouse. Hyeri nails Lee Dam's impulsive and positive character. Jang Ki-Yong certainly sell the weariness of a near 1,000 year old creature and seems to be having a nice arc to the character in the first half. But unfortunately, the writing lets down and it's back to Boringville for Woo-Yeo. And that's the main problem with the show. It progresses sharply in the first half, but it struggles to set up any lasting tension. Obstacles arise, but none seem particularly threatening and, soon enough, are easily dispatched.

I think that the impression that secondary couples are usually better than the primary is very often incorrect. But IN THIS SHOW? Kang Ha-Na and Kim Do-Wan are heavenly. Every moment they are together on screen is a joy. Very likely the best secondary couple of any show I have seen.

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There's lots and lots more wrong than just an uninspiring lead

Like almost everything is wrong with "The Impossible Heir".

Let's start with the well-worn scenario. Who's the successor to a conglomerate empire chairmanship? The illegitimate son that probably needs some intense psychotherapy for his simmering rage issues and definitely should learn some impulse control? Either of the legitimate sons that couldn't outfox a 4 year old in a Monopoly game? The bloodthirsty and estranged wife? The brilliant schemer secretary with no apparent blood relation to the current chairman?

Here's the problem: it's impossible to care about who wins the succession battle because it's impossible to care about any of the characters involved. The villains are laughably incompetent. The hero (or the one who is supposed to be) is as boring as dry paint and an ABYSMAL judge of character for someone who is supposed to be so brilliant. And the morally ambiguous anti-hero bad boy is so unbalanced that he's easier to pity than to root for.

Shorter: all these characters suck.

And that's if they weren't so conceptually cliche' (which they are and painfully so) and inadequately portrayed.

Lee Jae Wook - let's rip every bit of possible personality from his acting as possible. Great idea.

Lee Jun Young - he would kill playing a character with a serious mental disorder. But In Ha is obviously meant to be just not terribly bright and a bit overly ambitious.

Hong Su Zu - it's possible that she can act. Probably not. The smart betting money is definitely against her. But with a character so bland to portray, there's no way to ever start to figure that out.

Lee Ji Hoon - while it might be unfair to Hong Su Zu to judge her based on this show, there's enough history from other shows to declare with certainty that Lee Ji Hoon is awful. Yes, the character is supposed to be loathed but this performance is so bad, it comes across as pathetic instead of someone worth hating. It's a nauseous experience to watch him.

Han Sang Jin - no real notes on the performance but it should be noted that there's no small number of actors that bear some tiny bit of resemblance to Choi Jin Ho and could be believable as having 50 percent of Choi Jin Ho's DNA. Hang Sang Jin, however, is not one of them. Theoretically, it comes out later that he's not the chairman's son actually but that would betray the all-powerfulness and all-knowingness of the chairman character.

Choi Jin Ho isn't bad.

Choi Hee Jin is pretty good but gets 90 seconds of time on screen per episode. When she does make a brief appearance, she's treated like garbage by everyone. Literally every single other character is toxic to her. It's not fun to watch.

On top of the overall narrative structure, the direction and editing seems bent on making things more interesting by making the smaller arcs as baffling and poorly sequenced as possible.

Bad show. Very bad. Even for those that are ardent fans of one of these cast members, stay away. Far away.

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Yikes

In the first episode of “Police University”, much of the screentime is shared by Choi Woo Sung and Oh Man Seok who are essentially the de facto family of the main character Kang Sun Ho played by Jung Jin Young. Choi Woo Sung’s part generates a few chuckles and Oh Man Seok gives the episode a certain amount of gravity as he guides Sun Ho through a difficult ordeal and towards the titular school. Compared to the average drama, they’re not particularly noteworthy parts or characters but specific to the qualities of this production, they serve as the apex of entertainment value.

The remaining characters, storylines and acting performances have painfully few bright spots. Krystal is an accomplished actor but the character of Oh Kang Hee has not much to do except to serve as the love interest of Sun Ho. Seo Ye Hwa is one of the finest character actors in the industry and puts a noble effort in playing an administrator of the school but there’s just so little to work with.

As for the rest, it’s generally difficult to identify whether the flaws are because of the actor portraying the character, the dullness of the storyline, the ineptitude of the direction and editing or the banality of the dialogue. Most scenes are a train derailment of repetitive dialogue, exaggerated facial expressions and oddly timed cuts between shots. The most obvious examples are Lee Dal and Yoo Young Jae who play Sun Ho’s pals Beom Tae and Joon Wook. They are written as comic sidekicks, but the attempts at comedy are juvenile and painfully unfunny. While Lee Dal and Yoo Young Jae might garner laughs with better material is doubtful, there is at least faint hope that they have some modicum of talent that could be revealed in future works.

Despite the towering whirlwind of blame to be shared throughout the cast and crew, one particular individual stands out as so blatantly incompetent that even with better talent alongside him and behind the camera, he would have still have no chance at performing at a professional level. In episodes 2-3, the only possible compelling drama was the boot camp ordeal lifted straight out of “An Officer and a Gentleman” - Instructor bent on drumming out a cadet is met with the youngster’s desperate perseverance to stay. It’s a duel of wills between two men passionately bent on proving the other wrong. It’s hamstrung by the nonstop recital of cop cliche’ dialogue from Cha Tae Hyun’s Dong Man who wants Sun Ho to out of the university. But the dialogue is a mere distraction to the flat delivery, clownish expression and awkward movement from Jung Jin Young.
Instead of admiration for indomitable spirit, we are left with a string of painful cringes and a desperate hope that it will be over soon. There are other actors that are equally unskilled tasked with lead roles, but there are some small redeeming qualities that those individuals usually have:

Pretty
Pretty and tall
Pretty tall?
Jung Jin Young has none of these traits. If there is any moment where Jung Jin Young appears to have some idea of what he should be doing it is when he is running. However, it seems to be effective only when he is running away from the camera and we are fading to the next scene break.

Some of the OST is not terrible, but that is scant solace.

Not recommended. Not even a little.

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Jinxed. At First. And Second. And after that too. And it just goes on and on.

Wow.

Outside of an outright parody where acting performances are MEANT to be terrible ON PURPOSE in order to lampoon the source material, "Jinxed at First" is very likely the worst collective acting performance a commercial production has ever wrought.

The plot is silly, but no more so than plenty of other fantasy concepts.

The production quality is nothing special, but it's not awful either.

None of that matters. Na In Woo or Seohyun create characters to a certain degree. And it's possible that the production wanted them to act in the manner that they do here. So perhaps not all blame should fall on these two leads. But they're the faces on screen so deserve at least some. Both overplay their parts so grotesquely and clownishly that the moments when neither are on screen are a mercy to the audience. But the mercies are fleeting as most of the supporting cast and characters fit in to two personality categories - 1. fossilized driftwood. 2. hyperactive, emotionally unbalanced toddler.

Kim Dong Young has some nice moments as a loan shark with a softer side. Lee Ho Jung is solid as the arranged fiancee of one of the aforementioned pieces of driftwood. Both are significantly far down the list of supporting characters and get scant screen time, but there's some moments there. That's the extent of the positives.

Conclusion: Pass. Hard pass.

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Change is bad. And not changing is also bad.

Soundtrack #1 was a delightful, short, sweet drama. And while churning out another drama just like it would have been a bad idea and recreating something entirely new wholly unlike Soundtrack #1 wouldn't have made any sense, the creators of Soundtrack #2 kept the core elements the same - a production focused almost entirely on the romance between the leads and a backdrop occupied by the music industry. A few other elements seem familiar too. There's a facade of a love triangle, but it's clear from the moment that it appears that the late appearing third corner is a distant third wheel.

There's not a terribly prodigious amount of material to review. The episodes are short. There are only six of them. The supporting cast is capable but they are more props than characters - existing to prod a bit of dialogue out of a lead during the moments when the other lead isn't present. The music is a bit livelier than the usual drama ballad and it's pleasant, but it's not the stuff that is going to light up the charts and fill an arena. It's more suited to busking in a park.

Is the plot credible? There's no ghosts or time travel or generation-repeating curse so points there. A music prodigy ends up washing out and teaching music after school to kids? Easy sell. Probably happens all the time. Is a guy who churns out YouTube material and winds up crazy wealthy and driving every luxury car brand on the planet believable? Well, it doesn't violate the laws of physics as we know them so it's possible. Is it possible that THIS GUY did that? Less likely.

And that's where #2 lives up to it's own moniker as not number one. THIS GUY is not Park Hyung Sik. And while Steve Noh, even to a viewer who has no physical attraction to the male gender, objectively by scientific means of measurement is very, very physically attractive. But he is not anywhere near the talent as an actor that Park Hyung Sik is. And casting Steve Noh as the successor to Park Hyung Sik's lead role does not work. Not even a little. Part of it is that the character is so insecure. But the frenetic, try-so-hard-all-the-time, suffocate-everything-he-touches approach overwhelms all the other aspects that were meant to humanize the character. In short, where the previous lead was always cool and natural all the time, this lead tries too hard to be cool all the time. It's change and it's a bad change.

Meanwhile, Geum Sae Rok's Hyun Seo is too much like Han So Hee's predecessor. Musical talent? Check. Struggling in her career? Check. Has a musical white knight come along that recognizes her talent? Check. Unsure of her own feelings for the male lead? Check. In short, it's not change and while it's not as bad as what did change, it's still bad.

Points for being short and well-shot and having lots of pretty stuff to look at. But with so much riding on how good the leads are, these lead characters and the actors playing them just don't measure up.

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If a drama was a sampler platter of the genre

Think of the things that most frequently appear in a Korean drama...

-romance between leads

-secondary romance

-a supernatural element

-backstories told through flashbacks

-tent bars

-stalkers

-neighborhood police station

-parent/child issues

-sassy grandmother

-painfully long periods of flirting before the leads confess and begin a relationship

-ridiculously short period after the relationship starts that a breakup occurs

-an eventual and painfully obvious reconciliation

Really, other than period costumes and the inclusion of an ultrawealthy character, "Link: Eat, Love, Kill" covers all the usual bases. And it represents the genre relatively well. The leads do a relatively nice job with their performances. The story is a nice mix with a somewhat novel supernatural element, a decent crime thriller element, plenty of family relationship subplots and a somewhat generic romance. The direction is adequate. There's some solid acting from the very young cast members. The OST is not exceptional, but it's fine. It could have been edited down to about twelve episodes without detracting much, but it never completely bogs down.

This all seems to point towards this production being a very nice and likable way to pass time that doesn't leave a lasting impression. And that's an accurate summation.

The supporting cast is not an all-star group but there's some strong work by Kim Ji Young, Lee Suk Hyeong, Shin Jae Hwi and the very young Ahn Se Bin. There's a guest spot from Kim Won Hae which is always, always a treat. And there's isn't a single glaring bad performance despite the long roster of cast members.

Yeo Jin Goo isn't asked to play a particularly dynamic character and it works. Asking him to being an extrovert and do big things as an actor? That's not a great idea. Asking him to be mildly depressed? Super.

Moon Ga Young does what she does well. She's young and bubbly and bright and a little awkward. There's perhaps a little more of a grownup character for her here, but it's an incremental change.

The romance between the two is on par with the rest of the show - it's fine. It has some nice moments and some weaker spots. It's follows the usual course of K drama romance.

And since this review seems to have run its course (if there's anything else that hasn't been covered, just assume it was nice and fine like the rest of it), let's end this with a "sure, it's a pretty good show" conclusion.

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A promising concept undone by poor performances and some discomforting elements

An earnest small underdog businessman taking on the world with the help of his family should be an easy sell. Throw in a young, strong female lead and it's hard to imagine how it goes wrong. But "Backstreet Rookie" finds a way. It's not that it's not a mostly enjoyable watch, but there's vast wasted potential here that with a better cast and steadier direction could have been realized.

As for the strong points, Kim Yoo Jung effortlessly switches gear from bubbly youngster to driven achiever to smitten woman. She has the charm and talent and all the other attributes to take on more challenging roles. Kim Sun Young always delivers and her quieter moments with Kim Yoo Jung's Saet Byul are gems. The scene stealer is Seo Ye Hwa who has a marvelously vibrant character and crushes it.

The rest of the cast ranges from uninspired to grating. Kim Min Kyu might not be award-winning leading man material but he's better than he shows here. The overwhelming issue with "Backstreet Rookie", however, is Ji Chang Wook who is legitimate leading man material but airballs this performance. In more subdued moments, he exhibits the charisma and intensity that makes him an A Lister. But through most of "Backstreet Rookie", he's indulging in overplaying the character and the result is more clownish than comic.

Not that better acting would have solved the loose ends that crop up throughout the story. Dae Hyun's sister and husband appear early and seem to have some importance. But they rarely appear. Do Sang Woo is the villain but he is neither rehabilitated nor punished. He simply vanishes. Saet Byul's younger sister has a promising arc but it needed more depth.

As for the uncomfortable elements, it's certainly not a novel concept to have a much younger love interest for the main male character. But this relationship seems to be approaching serious red flag territory especially with a flashback to Saet Byul's youth days. The Dal Shik character by Eum Moon Sook though is really raising red flags. It's not blackface but there's, at minimum, a nod in that direction. With the growing international appeal of Korean culture, this is a bad look.

Overall, not a show that earns any sort of recommendation but should put Kim Yoo Jung on the shortest of lists for leads in better vehicles.

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Monologuing

This will circle back to "The Kidnapping Day" but it will be a bit of a scenic route.

It's easy to pinpoint the scene that transformed Bill Murray from one of many cast contributors on an after-dark weekend sketch comedy show. Sure, he was already known as one of the charter members of Saturday Night Live but he was anything but a bankable movie star. But one modestly budgeted, lightly raunchy summer camp comedy changed that. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the summer camp setting was became one of Hollywood's favorite locations for everything from horror to teen drama to comedy. In 1979, the poor ragtag kids camp up against the rich, spoiled kids on the other side of the lake was the basis for one such movie. In "Meatballs", Bill Murray played the first of the many iterations of the sardonic, sarcastic, lazy, laconic and acidic cool loner. And like in many other of these roles, the centerpiece of the role is an extended monologue where he sheds his aloofness and delivers a fiery speech to rally his followers to new heights.

The rest of "Meatballs"? Pretty generic stuff. But the monologue from Murray is spectacular. Much of it is simply repeating over and over and over again "It just doesn't matter!". Screaming the same phrase at the top of his lungs. It just doesn't matter. Repeatedly. It just doesn't matter. Again and again and again.

It just doesn't matter.

"The Kidnapping Day" is a drama, unsurprisingly, about a kidnapping. Myeong Jun, a dad down on his luck with a critically sick daughter, kidnaps Ro Hee, the daughter of a rich doctor, hoping to ransom er for enough money to pay for his daughter's surgery. But nothing goes as planned because nothing in Myeong Jun's life does. As things spiral out of control, there's almost everything but aliens and ghosts and mermaids thrown in. Murders. Crooked police. Power hungry wealthy families. Stoic killers. Mouthy bad guys. Unethical medical experimentation. Orphanages. Slums. Mansions. Hospitals. Boats. Beaches. There's so many elements that it's impossible to coherently piece them together.

It just doesn't matter.

The rich family floats in and out when necessary as a plot device but they're mostly there to advance some forward action by the bad guy. The bad guy is basically a mouthy venture capitalist. He's not a flop as a villain, but it's a fairly generic character. The crooked cops are even less prominent than the rich family.

It just doesn't matter.

Kim Sang Ho plays a critical support role but the script asks far too little of him and it's one of his least compelling performances. The problem is less severe with Kim Shin Rok's Hye Eun (Myeong Jun's ex wife). She's meant to be a morally ambiguous character, part regretful mother and part brilliant schemer. But the mother side is never convincing and the schemer side rarely makes sense. If she's supposed to be in hiding, why would she wear some of the most garish outfits in the Eastern Hemisphere? Why has she anticipated so many things but left an absolutely vital item unaddressed until far too late? And for a character that viewers should be on the fence about, she's indefatigably unlikable. The performance by Shin Rok is solid but she's too often asked to do things with the character that are, even in the most charitable light, confounding.

But it just doesn't matter.

Even Park Sung Hoon who has been on a tear of scintiallating performances in 2023 with terrific performances in "The Glory" and as an unconventional police officer in "Not Others" comes across flat here. It's the maverick cop with a heart of gold. And it's not a fresh take on the archetype.

Guess what? It just doesn't matter.

The plot meanders through the kidnapping, the morally murky medical people, the venture capitalists, the police, the power hungry family and ends up with a weak final confrontation. A cliffhanger from the end of one episode transitions to a completely different place and an almost total absence of a resolution to a main character on the verge of death. The police are dumb when it's convenient that they be dumb. And then they wise up at the most convenient time. The crime scene is abandoned. Literally. The investigators take the bodies and apparently then just leave. It's bizarrely implausible.

One last time. It just doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because the characters of Ro Hee and Myeong Jun and the performances by Yoon Kye Sang and 12 year old Yuna are transcendent. They are magical when they are together and the moments when they are pulled from each other are heartbreaking. It's an oddball pair, the rich girl from a sheltered life and a guy with a lifetime of fumbling away his chances at every opportunity. For Yoon Kye Sang, it is without question and by a considerable margin his best work of recent vintage. And for Yuna? It's a performance that can hardly be believed to have been rendered by someone of such young age. Among non-romantic relationships that have been portrayed in this genre, it is in acutely rarefied air. And it is why all of the other things just don't matter.

Minor items:

It is always welcome to see Kang Ha Neul in a brief but excellent cameo.

Same with Kim Di Doo.

Kim Dong Won does a nice job with the nearly mute assassin with unclear loyalties role quite nicely.

It just doesn't matter? Actually, nah. Not at all.

"The Kidnapping Day" is a tremendously entertaining drama thanks to the lead performances and it is highly, highly recommended watch.

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A masterful pairing of writing and directing

Layers.

"Drive My Car" is a long movie. A really long movie and there's some sections where it seems like there's not a lot going on. But Ryusuke Hamaguchi is very deliberately and delicately creating one subtle layer of meaning and complexity and understanding and connection on top of another.

Yusuke and Oto are married and happily so. Or so it seems. And then Oto is gone. Yusuke, an actor with a peculiar method and a specialty in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" presses on with his professional life as if all is well. On the surface, so it seems.

And then, Hamaguchi pulls back a bit of the veneer and reveals a bit more. Very slowly, Yusuke and Misaki, his assigned driver, in their own stilted ways, reveal who they really are to each other. Their past relationships align as opposites, one mostly light but with a darkness hidden away, the other abusive but with moments of compassion.

And as Yusuke and Misaki become something other than driver and passenger, Yusuke's work assembling the production of "Uncle Vanya" at a festival in Hiroshima is assembled, slowly, piece-by-piece. There's a marvelous interplay between the play production as it slowly goes from audition to table reading to rehearsal to live performance and the primary movie narrative. And the final scene of the play with Park Yoo Rim brings the two stories together and it is incredibly powerful.

If there's a weakness, it's a sudden transformation of a supporting character from a shallow and impulsive charmer to an introspective and insightful thinker. The scene is necessary for the narrative, but it's jarring.

Long movie but absolutely worth it. Highly recommend.

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Compelling, tense entry in the assassin genre

Does "Kill It" have a particularly original story? Nope.
Does it feature a dynamic performance by the main character? Uh, not really.
Is the background to the plot laid out in a coherent manner? Not even close.
Are there characters that serve no purpose and the production would be better off without? Very much so.
Is it branded well (title, poster, etc.)? That's all horrible.
Is David McInnis competent with a Russian accent? It's a 0/10. Incredibly bad.

Despite these shortcomings and some others, "Kill It" is an admirably executed show in a genre that, worldwide, has produced some incredibly entertaining pieces. Jang Ki Yong certainly has the assassin role down. In fact, he's almost too grim and silent. But he is wholly convincing physically and athletically as Soo Hyun. Nana is not a natural for the role of veteran, hard-nosed detective. It's the off-duty scenes where she is clearly more at ease in this role. Nevertheless, she is capable enough as an actor to hit the serious notes too.

Jung Hae Kyun is a marvelous villain. And the villainy that he is up too is top of the charts for bad behavior. Once his scheme has crystallized, "Kill It' really hits its stride. Moreover, unlike some dramas that like to rehabilitate or humanize their villains, not here. Quite the opposite actually and it ratchets the tension up continuously right up to the end.

The standout performance, however, is Roh Jeong Eui as, Seul Ki, the young woman taken in by Soo Hyun as a child. It is a complex character and Roh Jeong Eui is wonderful in every facet.

Despite some lowered expectations with the poor marketing and a fairly clumsy first few episodes, the second half of "Kill It" is terrific entertainment. It may not be something for all viewers, but anyone that enjoys the action genre will be pleased.

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Lesser than the sum of its parts

This may not be al all-star team, but "Monthly Magazine Home" has a high caliber of talent at the top of the credits. Kim Ji Suk may not have a history as a lead but he's been a standout as a supporting cast member. Kim Won Hae has an incredible resume'. Jung So Min is unquestionably a quality lead actor. Chae Jung An has stolen more than her share of scenes in previous work. And for a good chunk of of this series, they play a terrific melody together. But it doesn't last and, while it remains an entertaining show, "Monthly Magazine Home" falls short of making the memorable performance that this cast is capable of making.

Kim Ji Suk's Yoo Ja Sung is the character with the most significant growth, but while the character matures and grows, his charm vanishes. Ahn Chang Hwan has a series of episodes where he is scintillating but his tendency to overdo comedic scenes is unfortunate. Kim Won Hae, similarly, bright moments mixed with less than his finest work. Jung So Min is terrific where her character has material for her to use. But Na Young Won just winds up being rather bland.

There's plenty of criticism for the storyline in later episodes and there's merit to it, but things started to go awry much sooner. It really begins with some clunky direction at the halfway mark. Kim Ji Suk, in particular, has some extremely awkward blocking in what should be touching moments with Jung So Min. All the supporting characters are asked to recycle the same lines for rapidly declining comedic returns. And there's quite a bit of extraneous cast that are present for a large amount of the show but are given almost nothing to do. What's more disappointing is that there are multiple devices that work well for much of the series that completely vanish shortly after the halfway mark.

Credit to the wardrobe people for an incredible collection of sweaters. The Jo Yuri track "Story of Us" is terrific and one of the best soundtrack entries of 2021. The houses featured are absolutely stunning.

Overall, "Monthly Magazine Home" is a nice show. It has flaws and some are noticeable. It also has a nice collection of positives and quality moments. It's not strongly recommended, but recommended nevertheless.

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A tasty snack of a show

It's unfair to judge this show against most of the other K-dramas. They're not from the same species despite speaking the same language and being set in the same locale. And objectively, there is not a long list of positive attributes that "So Not Worth It" has and many things that deserve criticism. It definitely struggles early to find its form. But it does find it and it's got enough warmth and character and laughs to make it worth the small investment to watch.

Park Se Wan and Carson Allen acquit themselves nicely when given the opportunity to step to the front of the ensemble. None of the rest are given much chance to show much except for Shin Hyun Seung and he fails to deliver. The production does lean far too heavily on a laugh track. The show does deliver some genuinely worthy comedic moments but it's overshadowed by the hamfisted production.

It could have been better. It could have had more clever writing. It could have better production value. It could have better acting performances. It could have a brisker beginning. It made itself a big target that is easy to criticize and it deserves a modest amount of credit for doing so. But it still entertains and ultimately that is what matters. Enough to make it a recommendation with the qualifier that it's more like an easy bowl of microwave popcorn than a 7 course gourmet feast. In the right context, it works well enough.

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Stellar acting performances and focused storytelling

Quite simply, Tang Jun Sang is an amazingly versatile and talented young star and Lee Je Hoon puts down the best performance of 2021 so far. This show has quite a few qualities, but these two actors are what lifts this production to one of the most noteworthy.

It helps that it seems that it was set from the beginning to be multiple seasons so that not all the storylines had to be backfilled and fully wrapped by the end of the tenth episode. The overall arc of our main duo's story could be pushed forward with an adeptly placed flashback for Gu Ru's parents to keep the story flowing evenly throughout.

The subplots of each episode were, for the most part, woven in to the main story seamlessly and, although it was a show with fewer secondary characters, the casting did not miss. High marks for the production quality too.

I eagerly await season two.

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It's ok if you're ok with a show that's ok

I think this show deserves a lot of credit for telling a story that is miles away from the typical cliche' drama. It also deserves credit for establishing some highly unlikable bad guys and making no attempt to humanize them (which I like). This is entertainment. I like it when I don't have to feel conflicted about my distaste for the antagonist. The cast is deep. Lee Jung Eun is always terrific. Lee Soo Kyung sticks to the type of character where she excels but credit for being excellent at that style of character. I was not familiar with Jo Jae Ryong or Ryu Hye Young before, but they acquitted themselves admirably (especially RHY's Kang Dam). Lee David and Kil Hae Yeon were also wonderful.

But the cast is huge and weaving all of them in makes for an unwieldy narrative and it doesn't help that we lurch from this suspect to that suspect and back and forth between trials (both real and mock). It badly needed to crop 3-4 characters (like Woo Hyun's pointless copy room attendant and a couple of the school's administrators). More importantly, other than Kang Sol A, there was a rotating group of main characters at any one time but none of them had been developed sufficiently for me to care about any of them (including Han Joon Hwi who would have been a more realistic character if he'd slapped a big "S" on his chest and paraded around in tights and a cape).

The show somewhat redeems itself near the end with some clever twists, but it's not enough to really paper over some glaring flaws.

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